James prtttie



(No Model.) 7

J. PRITTIE.

AERIAL-RAILROAD 0R WIRE TRAMWAY AND APPLIANCES THEREFOR. No. 399,283. Patented Mag. 12, 1889.

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Nrrnn STATES ATENT FFICE.

JAMES PRl'lillE, O'F DENVER, COLORADO.

AERIAL RAILROAD OR WIRE TRAMWAY AND APPLIANCES THEREFOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 399,283, dated March 12, 1889.

Application filed November 6, 1888. $erial No. 290,164. (No model.)

u/Z It'll 0710 it may concern:

lie it known that I, Janus PRITTIE,'a citi- Zen of the lnited States of America, residing at Denver, in the county of Arapahoe and State of olorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inAerial Railroads or Wire lra1nways and Appliances ilherefor, of which the following is a specification, reference being had. therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to a novel construction and arrangen'ient.of a wire tramway or aerial railroad, and of the appliances therefor; and its objects are to furnish such a tramway and appliances of so simple and economical form that they may be put up and used for exercise and pleasure, rat-her than for traffic; that may be easily constructed, be adapted for safe, pleasant, and health and strength profiting use, giving exhilarating exercise and play to many of the muscles of the body, reliable and durable, and having a frame-work composed of parts readily assembled and putinto operative position and as readily taken apart and separated for ease and convenience of transportation; to which ends the invention consis s in the features, constructions, and arrangements more particularly hereinafter described and clai'ined.

In the drawings is illustrated an embodiment of my invention, in which trawings Figure 1 is a side view or elevation; Fig. 2, an inner end view, looking to the left of line .tr, liig. 1; ,l ig. .l, a transverse vertical section of the carriage; and. Figs. 1:, 5, and. (3, end views of nnx'liiieations of a part of Fig. 3.

In Fig. 1 two of the wire trannvays are shown one inclining from station A at the right to station ii at the left, and the other inclining in the opposite direction the two together forming a round way from one station or end to the other and return. 'lhesc stations, so called herein for convenience merely, are the ends or termii'ials of each tramway, and they may be as far apart as desired consistent with the strength of the wire or cable used. The two tramways are exactly alike, and the description now to be given will. be based on. the one supposed to be nearestthat is, the one inclinin downwardly from right to left, or from A to 13.

At the end A are two upright posts, 1 2, of suitable height and arranged to stand tirmly at a little distance apart. To insure firmness they may be braced from one to the other by any number of cross-braces, 23 1, while a diagonal brace, 5, may take from the inside of the inner post, 2, to a stake in the ground or a lug upon the floor or a suitable base-piece. As these posts are to support the wire or cable 9 at its highest elevation, a groove or channel is made in the top of the posts for such wire or cable to lie in, and by which it is retained in proper position. To enable the height of the wire relatively to the other end to be ad j usted and its inclination varied accordingly, the top of post 1 may be slotted to a considerable depth, apertures 10 being made through the wall of the slot and a pin, 11, provided for placement in any desired aperture, to there support the wire or cable.

At the end. I3 two posts, I) 7, are placed, similarly disposed, and which may be braced in the same way,but of a height only as great as or comparatively slightly greater than the height from the ground to be given the lower end of the wire or cable. Such wire or cable I is attached atone end to a post or stake, 1-1, or to any other suitable securing and firm device, and is then stretched over the tops of the posts 7 3 and over the top of post 1 or over the pin 11 therein, then over the post 2, and is secured at that end to a stake, 123, or other Iirm device.

interposed in the wire or cable fl or between it and one of the stakes by which it is secured is the ordinary wire-tightening device, 12, by which any slack. at any time occurring in the wire or cable may be taken up and the wire or cable kept normally taut and straight.

'lfpon the upper eross-In'aces, 1, or upon brackets or supports supported by the upright posts, is a platform, 15, by which a passenger or one desiring to use the tramway may reach the carriage adapted to travel on the cable or wire, this platform being reached by any suitably-placed flight of stairs, 10. Where two or more tramways are placed parallel to and a short distance from. each other and going in the same direction, the platform may be built from the posts 1 9 of one tramway to the posts 1 2 of another, or the platform may be built from the posts 1 2 of one tramway to and upon the posts 6 '7 of its companion or return tramway.

The frann--works (here shown as made of timber) are secured together by mortises and tenons, the parts being held in place by pins or screws 33, so that the members may be readily separated from each other and the frames knocked down, as it is technically termed, for ease of transportation. The same end may be attained by making the frames of iron tubings, or sections thereof rather, se-

cured together and in position by the ordinary screw-couplin gs or joints, both plain and elbow or T-joints.

The simplest form of carriage for use with the tramway is shown in section in Fig. 3, wherein 17 is a saddle, preferably of tenacious metal and open-ended and open-bottomed. Through its sides passes *a spindle, 18, on which is rotatably seated a sheave-pulley, 19, so as to lie in the upper part of the saddle 17. Upon the exterior ends of the spindle are handles 21 22, one of which may be integral therewith, 21 being so shown, while the other herein, 22,-is secured thereupon by a screw or other fastening, 23.

To use the tramway and carriage, a person mountsto the platform15, places the carriage upon the wire or cable 9, so that such wire or cable lies in the groove of the pulley 19, grasps the handles 21 22 firmly with the hands, and steps from the platform, the entire body being suspended from the carriagehandles by the hands. The weight thus suspended from both sides and immediately below the pulley, the latter is maintained upright upon the wire, and the party goes down,

the tramway toward the endB with a velocity proportionate to the inclination given the wire or cable. No matter how taut the cable or wire may be normally, the eifect of the weight is to curve it downwardly, giving it a curve approaching scmewhat a catenary curve, as shown in dotted lines, Fig. 1, the greater impetus being given the person at the start, and the flattening of the curve at the lower end tending to reduce the impetus and stop the person. To aid or to enable the person to easily and safely stop at the lower end, (which should be brought comparatively near the ground,) a curved or inclined platform, 24, is built or placed upon the inner side of post (i, on which the persons feet may take, while above the platform a padding like a mattress, plain or spring, is secured, against which the body may safely take and stop.

. Instead of the pulley being loosely seated on the spindle 18 and kept in proper position thereon by pins 20 or equivalent devices, the spindle and pulley may be arranged to rotate together, the former being journaled in hollow handles 30, secured in position by pins 31 in the end of the spindle, washers 32 being placed upon the spindle between the ends of the handles and the pins, as seen in Fig. 4c;

or handles orhand-holds 28, as seen in Fig. 5, may be used. Such handle 28 has along its upper edge bearings 26 for the spind e 18, and such bearing may be in two or more sections, as seen, or in one bearing continuous for the whole extent of the handle, which may be kept in position on the spindle by a pin, 2-3], as in Fig. 4, or by a nut, 29, as seen in Fig. 5.

If it is deemed preferable and desirable to have the weight suspended from the carriage at apoint or points below the axis of the pulley, the carriage may be arranged as shown in Fig. 6, wherein the pulley 17 is journaled by its spindle 18 in the walls of the saddle, from whose sides below the axis of the pulley project the handles 34:, rigidly secured thereto, and which, for greater security and strength, may be braced by the strips 35, secured to the upper part of the saddle and to theends of the handles. It is evident that instead of a single pulley being used in the carriage, as herein shown, a plural number thereof, to take upon the cable or wire, may be used.

It is evident that for the purposes of exercise and pleasure one tramway may be used, down which the user may drop, walking back to the starting-point for a repetition; but it is preferable to use the two inclined in opposite directions, that the user may make the round trip, starting, say, MA, and when arrived at.

the end thereof lifting the carriage therefrom, going up upon the platform thereat, placing the carriage on the return wire or cable, and returning to A thereby. The momentary suspension going from one station to another brings into use all the muscles of the arms, hands, and trunk, exercising and strengthening them and giving greater power of grip. Used moderately at first, the strength. of arms, lungs, and chest is increased, and with such increase more and more use of the tramway may be advantageously made. At the same time the rapid flight through the air, with no sustaining devices below the person and no impellin g power, gives a pleasant exhilaration and quickening. of the circulation.

The span from station A to station B may be several hundred feet, so long as the tensile strength of the wire or cable will permit, if desired, or it may be made short enough to come within the compass of an ordinary or even. small town lot, so affording means for home pleasure and exercise.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. A tramway for physical exercise, consisting of higher posts at one end, a platform thereat, lower supporting-posts at the other end, an inclined wire or cable stretched over such posts and between the two sets thereof,

means for securing the ends of the wire or.

at one end, having their upper ends slotted for varying the height of the upper end of the In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in cable, a platform at such end, lower cable-suppresence of. two witnesses. porting posts at the other end, an inclined wire or cable stretched over such posts, means 5 for securingthe ends of the Wire or cable, \Vit'nesses:

and a \vire-tightening device applied To such L. 1!. \VILRER, cable, substantially as set forth. R. M. hRlDEhMO'lT.

JAMES PRIT'lIE. 

